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"Do you feel sleepy?" Noi asked. "I'm tired, but it might be because Ikept waking up and stressing."
"Not sleepy," Emily murmured.
"Cold aside, I'm fine," Madeleine said. "Energetic, even. I usually wake up feeling good after feedingNash. Don't know why."
She dusted away crumbs, and they packed their leftovers, thentook turns using one of the large lidded buckets Noi had found and emptiedduring their hurried preparations. Forall they'd thought they would have plenty of time between arriving and theirdeadline of an hour before the challenge, they'd barely been ready. With no password for the hotel's computersthey'd been unable to code the card-keys to access the higher floors, and hadbeen limited in their movements until the discovery of an unlocked securityroom on the Mezzanine level which, along with master keys, had provided cameraviews of much of the hotel.
Fisher's hunt for wheelie bins and caustic soda had taken evenlonger, and dumping entire containers of bathroom cleaner in after they'd beenfilled had produced an eye-stinging reek, which thankfully had lost its edge bythe time they'd rearranged their hiding places enough to fit both the bins andmattresses hauled down from the hotel rooms, along with some wilting pot plantsfrom the foyer. How much difference thebins would make to carbon dioxide levels was something Fisher hadn't beenwilling to guess, beyond insisting that in theory they should help.
She'd wanted to kiss him before they locked themselvesaway. She'd pla
"Noi," she said, after they settled back down undertheir quilts, "did you see if any other Sydney Blues had beencaptured?"
"I figured looking at that can wait till we're out of here."
Madeleine sighed, and curled against Emily, working hard atnot feeling guilty. Unless they'dgambled wrong about the length of the challenge, it looked as if she would haveanother chance to see Fisher.
How many chances had she stolen from other Sydney Blues?
Chapter Eighteen
The clunk-clack of the latch broke through the refrigerator'ssteady hum.
Emily, quickest to react, flung quilts back in time to throwa force punch at the door as it opened. There was a gasp, and Madeleine caught a glimpse of Fisher as he wasknocked backward by the impact against his shield.
"Someone not a morning person?" Min said, pokinghis head cautiously around the side of the doorway.
"What are you–?" Noi began, then stopped. "It's over."
"The time limit seems to have been dawn," Fishersaid, from his new horizontal position on the floor. "They were all gone by the time the suntouched the horizon, but I gave it another half hour."
"I'm sorry!" Emily struggled to her feet. "Did I hurt you?"
"My fault," Fisher said, sitting up. "It would have been sensible to knockfirst." He moved arms and legsgingerly, then smiled. "Not tomention polite."
"Let's see if polite works on Nash and Pan," Minsaid, and rapped on the freezer door. "We should have thought up some kind of secret knock."
"That'd only be useful if none of us were taken,"Noi said, and crossed to pull the freezer door open. Worried, Madeleine realised, as they probablyshould all be.
Nash and Pan did not force punch at the door, or shift ontheir mattress pile, though they did stir in response to Noi'surgent shaking. Flushed and lethargic,they were slow to sit up, blinking with confusion.
"Let's get them to the foyer," Fisher said. "Without an oxygen mask, all we can dois give them space."
Out in the soaring, glass-and-excessive water features foyer,Madeleine found herself analysing the changes to Nash and Pan's skin tones,struggled with herself for a moment, then accepted. This was part of who she was, and she couldonly be relieved that the shift she was watching was a return to healthy shadesof brown and pink.
"Were any Blues captured?" she asked Fisher, notingthat he, too, was returning to a normal colour, though for differentreasons. Would he have nightmares aboutNash and Pan, a plan almost gone wrong?
"Yes." Hemet her eyes directly, not cushioning the statement. "From the leader board changes, justover thirty."
"Thirty!" Noi spilled some of the water she was offering Nash. "There were thirty Blues still free inSydney?"
"In and around it. It was a good decision to let Madeleine warn her parents. At least five dragons were sighted in theArmidale area."
With a news cha
"So, what now?" Min asked.
"Errol Fly
They all stared at Pan, propping himself against the legs ofa low chair.
"One of the symptoms of CO2 poisoning is delusions,right?" Min picked up a brochureand used it to fan in Pan's direction. "More oxygen required."
"If you'd read that brochure you'd know there's suiteswith mini-theatres." Pan wasworking on a wall-to-wall grin. "Not to mention a gym, three swimming pools, spa baths in thesuites, huge vats of ice cream, and a chocolatier. We just outsmarted our alien invaders,people! We've learned more about whatthey can't do, we've kept our hides our own, we've lived to fightanother day. Time to celebrate with somequality swashbuckling and strangely sped-up repartee."
Min wrinkled his nose. "Couldn't we at least watch something released this century?"
"Without a password to the hotel computer system,chances are we won't be watching anything at all," Noi said, her eyesgiving away the smile she was trying to suppress.
"Some drip always writes their passwordsdown." Pan waved a hand airily atthe glassy grandeur of the foyer. "There's sure to be an administrative office with some actual paperfiles, or a post-it note stuck to the bottom of a drawer, or a computer left onwhen they all ran away in the dust."
"That would be on level two," Nash murmured. He was not recovering as quickly as Pan, buthis finely-moulded features had lit with quiet amusement. "A two-day celebration, I think. Today for living, tomorrow anot-fully-surprising birthday, and then we will be serious again."
"Hey, you told them!" Pan only succeeded in looking gratified. "Do I get cake? Can we dress up?"
His enthusiasm bubbled over them, and though they decidedpartying would need to be postponed until they'd established escape routes,checked for ways to detect and avoid any alarms, and seen to preserving theirfood supply, it was hard not to enjoy the idea of a 6 star hotel as a hideout.
As they discussed what needed to be done, Madeleine spent hertime watching Fisher, who was watching her in return. A silent shared awareness of a first stepalready taken, of something which had moved on to a question of when.
Later.
ooOoo
Two men fought, the music flaring into dramatic highlights asthey danced across the deck of a ship under sail. Madeleine watched with vague interest,studying poses, but most of her attention captured by the warm fingers tangledwith her own.